Customs Broker Exam Taker Opposes US Bid to Add Full Exam to Record in CIT Case
The Court of International Trade should not permit the U.S. to add an entire customs broker license exam to the record of a case contesting the results of one individual's exam results, counsel for Byungmin Chae argued in a March 7 reply brief. There are no "extraordinary reasons" that warrant the inclusion of the entire 80-question exam, as only five questions are being contested, Chae said (Byungmin Chae v. Secretary of The Treasury, CIT #20-00316).
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Chae contests his results from the April 2018 customs broker exam. CBP initially informed Chae that he scored 65%, short of the 75% threshold to obtain a customs broker license. An appeal to the agency’s Broker Management Branch brought him up to 67.5% in August 2018. Chae then appealed to the CBP executive assistant commissioner, which in May 2019 brought his score up to 71.25%. He still needed CBP to grant him three more correct answers to get his license.
During litigation over Chae's exam results, the U.S. moved to add the whole exam to the record. Chae argued that while there's a need to clear the record as it relates to ambiguities around one of the questions, there's no justification for the inclusion of the entire exam. "There are no extraordinary reasons which would warrant inclusion of the entire -- 80 question -- exam on the record for the limited purpose before this Court," the reply brief said. "Rather, the information with which Defendant attempts to unnecessarily augment the record here would only confuse and waste the Court’s time and resources."